Moony and the Whomping Willow

Been ahile since I updated - here's my take on one of my students' class projects at LCAD. (Taken with Instagram)

Steampunk Girl Sketch

I've taken a break from TAH fanart the past two weeks, so I thought I'd post something I drew during a meeting of Legend3D's sketch club while I worked there. 

Thor vs. The Sandman - the Script

I talked Caleb into posting the script to the comic in the previous entry on his blog. Jump to it here, you'll be glad you did.

Thor vs. The Sandman

Last summer, with about 2 weeks to go before Comic-Con, my friend Caleb Monroe generously offered to write a 5-page comic script if it would help me create some sample work for my portfolio. When I agreed, he suggested that it focus on two popular characters, one from  the stables of DC and one from Marvel. I picked Neil Gaiman's The Sandman and The Mighty Thor.  An odd combination, to be sure, but I thought, "That'll be a challenge."

I had no idea that he'd deliver something so poetic, almost lyrical. There's no dialogue, no colors, no onomatopoetic sound effects; I did my best to bring this lovely little story to life, and I hope you like the results. 

"Tales from the Black Lagoon" Fanart

Hollywood's always done its best to prove the adage "truth is stranger than fiction", and the guys behind The Thrilling Adventure Hour have taken it even stranger with Tales from the Black Lagoon. A tale of Hollywood noir, Tales is a terrific whodunit according to "the newly-rediscovered memoirs of Ben Chapman", the man who played the titular beast from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and a fantastic example of world building by the show's writers.

In Tales, everything you think you know about the golden age of the silver screen is topsy-turvy: Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff's infamous feud? Invented to hide the fact they were lovers. The hilarious Harpo Marx? A vicious thug with arms like boa constrictors. And the cherubic Angela Lansbury was a deadly femme fatale who'd "had more extras than Central Casting."

I really wanted to nail the likeness here, so this was a bit of a challenge. There's definitely a dearth of reference of Angela Lansbury looking anything other than 357% wholesome and adorable. Super-fun.

Soon to be colored and made into a cigarette card.

Atomic Cthulhu

The paranoia of the 50's, along with the social tensions and political volatility of the era, just screams to have other, less metaphoric vistas opened onto strange worlds. This is my cover to a book of playing aides for people wanting to roleplay Lovecraftian horror in the "atomic era", when technology (and your neighbor) suddenly became something to fear. Published by Chaosium.

When the book becomes available, I'll make sure to post a link to a place where it can be purchased.

The Red Plains Rider

... and right on the heels of Pterodactyl Jones comes The Red Plains Rider! Often seen in the company of Sparks Nevada, Marshall on Mars, who paired her up with her future husband, the frontiersman Cactoid Jim. Red is most often portrayed by the talented Busy Philipps on episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, but as the equally-awesome Annie Savage has also taken a turn as the fiery vigilante, I kept the likeness pretty soft.

Had a ton of fun with this one designing her outfit and weapon of choice.

Soon to be colored and turned into a cigarette card. Stay tuned.

Pterodactyl Jones and Harvey

A portrait of Patton Oswalt as Pterodactyl Jones, the house detective of the most haunted hotel in New York City, The Opal, and his dinosaur-ghost sidekick, Harvey. Their adventures can be heard on the Beyond Belief episode "The Devil and Mr. Jones" on The Thrilling Adventure Hour.

Patton's likeness still isn't as close as I'd hoped, but Harvey makes up for it, I think.

Soon to be colored and turned into a cigarette card. Stay tuned.

More Dungeon Majesty Goodness

Mystika, the Cleric/Necromancer

Shakuntala, the Druid

LaTiza, the Sorceress

Devastina, the Barbarian

The Dungeon Majesty girls, done in the style of Larry Elmore. Ink on bristol, 2007.

More "Thrilling Adventure Hour" fanart

Croach the Tracker, emotion-impaired, onus-obsessed Martian sidekick of Sparks Nevada, Marshall on Mars. Croach is portrayed by Mark Gagliardi on episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour.

The pose and costume are pretty much ripped right from a Don Spaulding-painted cover from the Silver Age Tonto comic, and highly influenced by this character design as well. I'm also liking this new tonal sketch style I picked up after my classes at Studio 2nd St. - I'm thinking I might run with it awhile.

Soon to be colored and turned into a cigarette card. Stay tuned.

Fanart for "The Thrilling Adventure Hour"

Much like Spider-Man, I'm very lucky to have a bunch of amazing friends - the lovely Janet Varney is one of them. She's an actress, voice actress, comedian and all-around amazing lady. You're probably most familiar with her as the voice of Korra in Avatar: The Legend of Korra. She also appears on episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour, most often as the adorable vampire (and recent mom!) Donna Henderson on "Beyond Belief". I thought, since Korra fanart is out of control, I thought I'd do my part to try and even it out by doing some of one of her other characters.


Soon to be colored and turned into a cigarette card. Stay tuned.

Commission - Conan the Cimmerian

A tattoo design done for an old friend.

Graphite, bristol.

And the finished product, from my friend's phone. =)

Looks pretty good!

Last Wed. night portrait class of the session. Think I'm on a good path here... Looking forward to applying what I've learned. (Taken with instagram)

2nd St. Studio Sketches

So, during class this week I periodically took out my phone and snapped some pictures of a portrait I was drawing at Studio 2nd St. 

I labored on this guy for about 2 hours only to have Ron Lemen sit and, in the course of about 15 minutes, transform it utterly from the third photo in this set, to the fourth and final photo. It's inspiring and humbling to be shown how far I have yet to go as an artist by someone as skilled and as sweet-natured as Ron.  Exhilarating, too.

Can't wait for next class!

Danielle as a Faerie. Watercolor, 2002

Dungeon Majesty - Part 2

So, it was Spring 2007, and I was having the worst few months of my life.  I mean, I had a great job doing sketches for a small furniture design studio in San Juan Capistrano (which unfortunately left me a creative desert after what were often very long hours).  My wife and I had recently been inflicted with a profound loss to our little family, and I needed to feel sane again - inspired again.  I toyed with World of Warcraft for a few months, playing around with local pals, doing the repetitive quests over and over... but it was the huge time sink I knew it would be.  Then, one day, I find a story on Boing Boing on these kids who had put together a cable access D&D show in order to stave off the same doldrums.  I was in.

Recent book cover - A Long Way Home. Published by Chaosium (click here to be directed to their catalogue!)